Obama White House Workplace Comedy In Development (Exclusive)

Universal Pictures and Anonymous Content have teamed to adapt a book proposal by a former White House stenographer.

The Obama White House is heading to the big screen via a high-concept workplace comedy, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Universal Pictures has optioned From the Corner of the Oval, a book proposal by Beck Dorey-Stein, a former White House stenographer.

The movie option comes after Random House Publishing Group division Spiegel & Grau preemptively picked up the proposal in a seven-figure two-book deal. The book is expected to be published in 2018.

Producing the feature will be Anonymous Content’s Michael Sugar, who produced the Oscar-winning drama Spotlight, as well as the company’s Nicole Clemens and Ashley Zalta. Aevitas Creative Management will also produce.

The book doesn’t promise a revealing look inside the inner workings of the Obama administration, but focuses more on the White House as a workplace and on the relationships between the staffers.

From the Corner of the Oval follows a young woman living in Washington D.C. who is at an all-time career low when, through a twist of fate, she goes from serving cocktails to lobbyists to being hired as a stenographer in the Obama White House. The ultimate fish out of water, she stumbles into an elite world and finds herself navigating a series of misadventures in life and love.

Erik Baiers, executive vp of production, and Elizabeth Haggard, director of story Development, will oversee the project for Universal.